In the industry, ornamental and protective collars are known. While some of these collars are illuminated, none of the collars currently available are easy and simple to construct and use and also inexpensive.
Muench (U.S. Pat. No. 4,266,511) discloses an ornamental and protective collar for an animal, but it is not illuminated. This particular collar is designed to be highly attractive and aesthetically appealing, but is not designed to be illuminated. As a result, it fails to adequately identify an animal who may be wearing the collar at night or in other areas where there may be an absence of sufficient light to see the animals. Thus, it suffers from the disadvantage of not having illumination.
Another pet collar is disclosed by LoCascio (U.S. Pat. No. 4,895,110). While this pet collar provides for illumination, it has a complicated design and does not provide the necessary level of safety that is required. It includes a generally elongate electro-luminescent strip and a power means affixed to the collar. A disadvantage of this collar is that the electrical circuit is completed only when the collar completely encircles the neck (or other anatomical portion of the body) of the animal. If the adhesive strips or buckle or other device that is holding the collar in position becomes loose and the collar is dangling from the neck of the animal, the electrical circuit is broken and there is no illumination. This can be an especially significant problem at night when the animal is most likely to run into difficulty. If an animal becomes injured at night and the collar becomes partially dislodged, the illumination of the collar will be discontinued and the animal will lose the level of security that it requires at the time that it needs it most.
Another collar with illumination is disclosed by Minotti (U.S. Pat. No. 4,909,189). It includes light bulbs attached to the collar. A battery pack and a switch are used to activate the lights and to complete the electrical circuit. The disadvantage of this collar is that there is no means for recharging the batteries. If the batteries run down, then there will be no illumination of the collar. Thus, the animal will be rendered in the same unsafe condition as it would have been without the collar.
Therefore, there is a need in the industry for an easy and simple to use illuminated collar for an animal, which cannot become easily disconnected and in which the power supply can be continuously reenergized.